Shelving bracket

ABSTRACT

A shelving bracket adapted to be mounted to a non-vertical is adjustable to support a shelf in a horizontal orientation. The bracket may include support to receive and support transversely extending clothes hanging or similar poles.

FIELD

The invention relates to shelving and clothes hanging brackets.

BACKGROUND

The presence of sloped walls and angled or non-vertical surfaces inbuildings presents limitations in the ability to store objects onbracket-supported shelving by securing the brackets to the non-verticalsurface. Shelving brackets adapted to be attached to a wall typicallyare configured with the shelf support at right angles to the bracket legto be attached to the wall. Such shelf brackets cannot support a shelfhorizontally when the wall is oriented to be non-vertical, for example,in an attic, beneath a staircase or in other angled surfaces. Althoughsome shelving brackets are adjustable, for example, to allow a board orshelf to be flat-folded against a wall, they do not enable attachment soas to provide a horizontal shelving surface attached to a sloped wall ornon-vertical surface. It would be desirable to provide such anadjustable shelving bracket.

SUMMARY

A shelving bracket is provided that includes a wall-mounting leg, ashelf-supporting leg pivoted to the mounting leg and anadjustable-length bracing leg, pivoted at one end to the shelf supportleg and at the other end to the mounting leg. The range of adjustment ofthe adjustable bracing leg is such as to allow the shelf-support leg toextend horizontally when the mounting leg is attached to a sloping wallor other surface that is angled with respect to the vertical. Theadjustable brace leg includes locking elements by which the bracket canbe locked in a wide range of configurations such that the angle betweenthe mounting leg and the shelf-supporting leg is adjustable and obtuseand may be used with a range of angled sloping surfaces. In addition toproviding a horizontal shelf support, the bracket can be formed toinclude pole supporting hooks to receive clothes poles.

DRAWINGS

The various objects and advantages of the invention will be appreciatedmore fully from the following description, with reference to theaccompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an isometric illustration of an embodiment of a pair thebrackets with a shelf and a pair of clothes-supporting poles shown inphantom;

FIG. 1A is an illustration of a pole hook that, optionally, can beincorporated into the bracket;

FIGS. 2A and 2B are side views of the bracket used with walls or otherangled surfaces having varied sloping angles;

FIG. 3A is a plan view of one embodiment of the shelf-support leg whilestill in flat, unformed configuration;

FIG. 3B is a plan view of an embodiment of a lower pole support whilestill in flat, unformed configuration;

FIG. 3C is a plan view of a mounting leg of the bracket;

FIG. 3D is an end view of the mounting leg;

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional illustration of the bracing legshowing an illustrative locking mechanism for the bracing leg; and

FIG. 5 is an illustration of modified locking mechanism having fineradjustment capability.

ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 illustrates a pair of shelving brackets 10 embodying theinvention. Each shelving bracket 10 includes a mounting leg 12, ashelf-supporting leg 14 and a bracing leg 16. The mounting leg 12 may beformed from suitable metal and preferably is channel-shaped in crosssection as shown in FIG. 3D, having side walls 12A, 12B and a web wall12C. The web wall 12C may be provided with holes 18 along its length toenable the mounting leg to be securely fastened to a structurally soundportion of a wall 20, for example, to a stud or a rafter or to any otherstructural surface that makes an angle to the vertical. The mounting leg12 may be considered to have upper and lower ends 22, 24. In theillustrative embodiment, the mounting leg is attached with its openchannel facing the angled wall. In that mounting, the web wall 12C alsomay have an elongate opening 13 toward the lower end 24 to receive thelower end of the bracing leg 16, as described below. The mounting legcould be mounted with its channel facing outwardly from the wall and inthat case the opening may be omitted.

The shelf-supporting leg 14 is pivoted at its inner end 26 to the upperend 22 of the mounting leg 12 at a first pivot pin 28 and is arranged sothat the angle between the mounting leg 12 and shelf-supporting leg 14can assume an obtuse angle, thus enabling the shelf-supporting leg 14 tobe oriented in a horizontal position when the mounting leg is attachedto a sloping wall or angled surface. The shelf-supporting leg 14 also ischannel-shaped in cross-section to define a shelf support surface 36 anda pair of side skirts 37 and may be formed from flat sheet metal in apattern as shown in FIG. 3A. The shelf-supporting leg 14 may beconsidered as having a forward end 26 and a rearward end 28 with theforward end formed to define a pair of mirror-image hooks 30 and therearward end formed to define a pair of diverging tangs 32. Theshelf-supporting leg is formed to its channel cross-section by bendingthe sheet metal pattern along a pair of parallel lines, indicated inphantom in FIG. 3A at 34. Thus formed, the leg 14 has the shelfsupporting surface 36 and holes 38 may be formed in the shelf supportsurface 36 to enable a shelf to be securely screwed to the leg 14.Additionally, when the shelf support has been formed, the hooks 30 ofthe formed shelf support leg 14 are aligned with each other and providea support for a transversely extending clothes supporting pole.Similarly, the tangs 32 also align with each other and are adapted toembrace the sidewalls 12A, 12B at the upper end 22 of the wall mountingleg 12. The tangs 32 are formed with holes 40 arranged to align withholes (not shown) in the upper end of the sidewalls 12A, 12B of the wallmounting leg 12, the aligned holes receiving the first pivot pin 28.

The bracing leg 16 is pivoted, at a second pivot pin 42, to the forwardportion 26 of the shelf-supporting leg 14 and at its other end to alower portion of the mounting leg 12, as at a third pivot pin 44. Thebracing leg 16 is adjustable in length so that it can accommodate arange of obtuse angles A between the mounting and shelf-supporting legs12, 14 and a locking arrangement is provided by which the bracing leg 16can be securely locked in a selected one of a plurality of positions.FIGS. 2 and 2A illustrate, how the shelf bracket is adjustable toaccommodate sloped walls and angled surfaces having different slopingangles.

The bracing leg 16 should be formed to have good compressive strengthand, preferably, may be formed from a pair of telescoped tubes such asan inner tube 46 slidably received in an outer tube 48. As shown in FIG.4 the locking arrangement may include a longitudinally extending row oflocking holes 50 formed along the outer tube 46 and a resilientlymounted button 52 mounted within the inner tube 46 and protrudingthrough a single button hole 54 formed in the inner tube 46 and alignedwith the row of locking holes 50. The tubes 46, 48 are arranged so thatthe button 52 can be depressed to allow the tubes to be telescopicallyadjusted to a position in which the shelf support leg is horizontal. Thebutton then can be released to protrude through a selected of thelocking holes to lock the tubes 46, 48 in that position. The button 52may be formed on an end of a leg 56 of a U-shaped spring 58 that biasesthe button 52 outwardly through the button hole 54.

FIG. 5 shows a modified form of locking arrangement in which thetelescoping tubes can be provided with a finer degree of adjustment. Inthis embodiment a second row of locking holes 60 is provided on theouter tube 46, with the holes 60 being located on the diametricallyopposite side of the outer tube 46 from the first row of holes 50. Thelocking holes 60 are spaced along the outer tube 46 so that theircenters are out of registry with the holes 50 of the first row. In thisembodiment a second button 62 is secured to the other leg 64 of theU-shaped spring 58 and protrudes into a second button hole 66 in theinner tube 44, the button holes 54, 66 being disposed diametricallyopposite each other. From the foregoing it will be appreciated that onlyone of the two buttons 52, 62 can be in engagement with a locking hole50 or 60 at a time. When the button 52 is in engagement with a lockinghole 50, the other button 62, although protruding through its buttonhole 66, will bear against a portion of the inner surface of the outertube disposed between a pair of locking holes 60. Similarly, when thebutton 62 is in engagement with one of its locking holes 60, the otherbutton 52, although protruding through its button hole 54, will bearagainst a portion of the inner surface of the outer tube disposedbetween a pair of locking holes 50. The arrangement enables the lengthof the bracing leg 16 to be more finely adjusted that with a single rowof locking holes.

As shown in FIGS. 1, 1A, 2A and 2B, the shelving support can incorporatea second, lower clothes pole support 70. The pole support 70 of eachbracket may be formed from a flat sheet of metal in a pattern asindicated in FIG. 3B. The pattern may be considered to include a hookend at which a pair of mirror image hooks 72 are formed. The sheet metalpattern is intended to be folded along a pair of parallel fold lines 74to define a channel-shaped cross-section that includes a pair of sideskirts 76 connected by a web 78. The side skirts are spaced sufficientlyso that they can fit over mounting leg 12. The lower pole support 70 mayhave at least one, and preferably two oblong holes 80 that be alignedwith the holes 18 in the mounting leg 12 to secure the pole support 70between the mounting leg and the surface to which the bracket isattached. The additional pole support is optional.

It should be understood that the foregoing description of the inventionis intended merely to be illustrative thereof and that otherembodiments, modifications and equivalents may be apparent to thoseskilled in the art without departing from the principles of theinvention.

Having thus described the invention, I claim:
 1. A shelving bracketcomprising: an elongate mounting leg adapted to be securely fastened toa structural non-vertical support structure; a shelf-supporting leghaving first and second ends, the first end of the shelf-supporting legbeing pivotally connected to an upper portion of the mounting leg at afirst pivot; a bracing leg having first and second ends, the first endof the bracing leg being pivoted to the shelf-supporting leg at a secondpivot, the second end of the bracing leg being pivoted to the mountingleg at a third pivot; the bracing leg being adjustable in length toenable the angle between the mounting leg and the shelf-supporting legto be varied, the bracing leg comprising an outer tube and an inner tubetelescopically received in the outer tube; locking structure for lockingthe bracing leg in a selected of a plurality of lengths, the lockingstructure comprising a first row of a plurality of linearly alignedlocking holes formed along the length of the outer tube and a firstbutton hole in the inner tube, the tubes being oriented relative to eachother to enable the first button hole to be aligned with a selected oneof the plurality of locking holes in the first row, the lockingstructure further comprising a first locking button carried within theinner tube in alignment with the first button hole and being biasedradially outwardly whereby the first button can protrude through thefirst button hole into engagement with a selected of the locking holesof the first row to lock the bracing leg in a selected configuration; asecond row of linearly aligned locking holes formed along the length ofthe outer tube opposite the first row; the inner tube having a secondbutton hole in alignment with the second row of locking holes; thelocking holes in the second row being in longitudinally staggeredrelation to the locking holes in the first row; and a second buttoncarried within the inner tube in alignment with the second button holeand being biased radially outwardly whereby the second button canprotrude through the second button hole into engagement with a selectedof the locking holes in the second row, the staggered relation of thelocking holes in the first and second row enabling only one of thebuttons to be in engagement with one of the locking holes at a time. 2.The shelving bracket as defined in claim 1 wherein the rows of lockingholes are long enough to enable the shelf-supporting leg and themounting leg to be pivoted between an acute and an obtuse angle wherebythe mounting leg may be secured to a non-vertical surface and theshelf-supporting leg can be oriented to be horizontal.
 3. The shelvingbracket as defined in claim 1 wherein the locking structure furthercomprises: a resilient U-shaped spring having a pair of legs containedin the inner tube with its legs biased radially outwardly, the firstbutton being attached to an end of one of the spring legs and the secondbutton being attached to the end of the other of the spring legs.
 4. Theshelving bracket as defined in claim 1 further comprising a pole hookformed integrally with the outer end of the shelf-supporting surface. 5.The shelving bracket as defined in claim 1 further comprising a polehook attached to the lower end of the mounting leg.
 6. A shelvingbracket comprising: an elongate mounting leg adapted to be securelyfastened to a structural non-vertical support structure; ashelf-supporting leg having first and second ends, the first end of theshelf-supporting leg being pivotally connected to an upper portion ofthe mounting leg at a first pivot; a bracing leg having first and secondends, the first end of the bracing leg being pivoted to theshelf-supporting leg at a second pivot, the second end of the bracingleg being pivoted to the mounting leg at a third pivot; the bracing legbeing adjustable in length to enable the angle between the mounting legand the shelf-supporting leg to be varied wherein the shelf supportingleg is channel-shaped in cross-section having a longitudinally extendingshelf-support web and a pair of spaced sidewalls extending downwardlyfrom the web, the first pivot being mounted to the sidewalls, and a polehook formed integrally with and in one piece with at least one of thesidewalls of the shelf supporting leg.
 7. The shelving bracket asdefined in claim 6 further comprising each of the sidewalls of the shelfsupporting leg having a pole hook formed integrally and in one piecewith the outer end of the sidewall.
 8. The shelving bracket as definedin claim 6 wherein the mounting leg is channel-shaped in cross-sectionhaving a longitudinally extending web and a pair of sidewalls extendingfrom the web, the second pivot being mounted to the sidewalls.
 9. Theshelving bracket as defined in claim 8 further comprising a lower polehook attachment mounted to the lower end of the mounting leg, the polehook attachment being channel-shaped having a web and a pair of spacedskirts extending from the web, each of the skirts comprising a hookshaped member formed integrally and in one piece with and extending fromeach of the skirts, the skirts being spaced to receive thechannel-shaped mounting leg therebetween.
 10. The shelving bracket asdefined in claim 6 wherein the mounting leg is channel-shaped incross-section having a longitudinally extending mounting web and a pairof sidewalls, the second pivot being mounted to the sidewalls.
 11. Theshelving bracket as defined in claim 1 wherein the second row of holesis diametrically opposite the first row; and the spacing between thelocking holes in the first row is the same as the spacing of the lockingholes in the second row.